About Dance Santa Barbara
Meet the Dance Instructors
Jonathan Bixby
Jonathan started dancing at 15 and even enjoyed being a regular dancer on American Bandstand with Dick Clark in the late 1960's. After graduating from UCSC, he became a kindergarten teacher until he moved to Santa Barbara in 1979 to begin a dance career. By locating celebrated dancers like Dean Collins, Frankie Manning and Maxie Dorf from the 1940's, he and his partner, Sylvia Sykes, learned various forms of Swing and Balboa from the masters and they have been passing on this knowledge for more than three decades. Jonathan also co-hosts the First and Third Friday Swing Dance at the Carrillo Ballroom. Google; Jonathan Bixby Santa Barbara. And you'll find out more about the contributions he's made in the dance world.
Here's a video of Jonathan and Sylvia with Team USA and their first place performance at the US Open Swing Dance Championships.
